The One Where Ross and Rachel Take a Break

Thursday, 13 February 1997

Ross and Rachel fight over her job on their anniversary, Rachel asks for a break from the relationship, and Ross ends the night drinking and dancing with a copy-shop clerk named Chloe.

What happens

• Phoebe asks Monica for an atlas because she has a date with a diplomat whose country she cannot find and who speaks no English.
• Chandler talks Joey into going to the copy shop with him to see Chloe, and she invites them both to a club where her coworker is playing records.
• Ross learns that Rachel is stuck at work with a shipping crisis and is cancelling their anniversary dinner.
• Ross turns up at Rachel's office with a picnic, distracts her, sets a small fire with his candle, and Rachel throws him out.
• Rachel and Ross fight at home about her job and about Mark, and Rachel says they should take a break, meaning a break from each other.
• Ross arrives at the club, where Chloe greets him as a regular customer and he tells Chandler and Joey that he and Rachel are breaking up.
• Mark comes over with Chinese food, and Rachel admits to him that she does not actually want the break.
• Ross phones Rachel to say they should work things out, hears Mark in the apartment, and hangs up on her.
• Mischa resigns his post and takes Monica off to another club, leaving Phoebe and Sergei to work out a few words on their own.
• Chloe gets Ross onto the dance floor after he tells her he would rather drink than dance.